LS 2

Lately, it was the nicest day they’d had. It had been gloomy and windy nonstop, but today, for the first time in a while, the sun was out and shining bright. Bathed in the sunlight pouring into the room, Dohee rolled once across the wide bed.

Everything was a bother, seriously. Getting up, eating, drinking coffee, smoking, every bit of it felt like a chore. Dohee rubbed his head back into the pillow again. Afternoon light scattered over his platinum blond hair, now disheveled and spread across the mattress like dandelion fluff.

“Ugh… what is this now.”

Dohee blinked as he picked up his phone, which he’d forgotten to charge. Maybe he’d seen wrong. Twenty-three missed calls. All of them from Baek Yeohoo. He hadn’t heard a single one since he’d left the phone on silent while sleeping.

Wondering if something had happened, Dohee was about to call back, then let out a sigh and tossed the phone back onto the bed. It was probably something pointless. Like getting a rare scroll drop or, more likely, just raving about how insanely good lunch had been. Useless crap, for sure.

“…Too much work.”

He really didn’t want to do anything, but in the end, Dohee forced his sprawled body upright. Even if he was going to quit, he should at least finish his dailies. Daily quests reset at midnight, and skipping even one day came with a noticeable loss.

Powering on the computer, Dohee headed into the bathroom to wash up. Glancing in the mirror, he ran a hand through his messy hair. His roots had grown out nearly a centimeter. Time for a salon visit, maybe. Platinum blond was more high-maintenance than he’d expected, but even so, he’d stubbornly kept the color for nearly two years now.

“You’re more diligent than people think, you know?”

He remembered Yeohoo saying that once. Dohee didn’t think it really fit him. He just kept bleaching it because the black roots annoyed him. He liked what was familiar and didn’t bother him. That was all.

💎

[Guild Chat]

SiblingSpicyNoodle: Are you out of your damn mind?? Wanna fight in the arena? You’re seriously pissing me off.

Ballistic: And why am I the crazy one? ^^ Isn’t that you?

Ballistic: I was just enlightening you with facts, as always.

Ballistic: Let’s be honest, you’re the one who messed up the DPS angle and died.

Ballistic: So the party wiped because of your lack of damage, and now you’re angry instead of apologizing?

SiblingSpicyNoodle: lmao are you kidding me? I pinged before I died, okay?

SiblingSpicyNoodle: I literally screamed for heals, didn’t I?

SiblingSpicyNoodle: My potion was on cooldown so what the hell was I supposed to do??

SiblingSpicyNoodle: If you’re a healer, just heal for god’s sake! Stop trying to DPS!

SiblingSpicyNoodle: Why the hell is a healer even putting out damage, are you crazy!?

PrettyHealerHyung: ….ㅠㅠ How long are you two gonna fight…

PrettyHealerHyung: My guild chat alarm keeps going off…ㅠㅠ Can’t you fight in DMs?

SiblingSpicyNoodle: ?

PrettyHealerHyung: No, I mean…ㅠㅠ I’m scared…

Ballistic: SiblingSpicyNoodle is just too loud ^^ Sorry, Healer-nim.

SiblingSpicyNoodle: ???? Are you kidding me?? You were arguing right along with me and now you’re playing the victim?!

Ballistic: SpicyNoodle?

PrettyHealerHyung: …ㅠㅠ Please… just stop fighting…

[System] ‘SiblingSpicyNoodle’ has been demoted to ‘New Guild Member.’

[System] ‘Ballistic’ has been demoted to ‘New Guild Member.’

AssGo: Too noisy. Stripped their roles.

PrettyHealerHyung: That’s our amazing vice guild leader ㅠㅠㅠㅠ Why’d you come so late ㅠㅠㅠㅠ I was scared…

PrettyHealerHyung: Meanwhile, the guildmaster just sat back and watched ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

YeohooHae: ? That wasn’t “watching”

YeohooHae: They’re always fighting like that, lol.

YeohooHae: Give it an hour or two and they’ll be holding hands in a raid again.

YeohooHae: No point stepping in, lol. You two lovebirds do you~

SoftRiceCake: Honestly, the guildmaster might be the worst one of all…

YeohooHae: ????

Familiar and non-bothersome was fine, but this was getting too familiar.

Dohee blankly stared at the ever-chaotic guild chat and typed something with no soul behind it.

The once-noisy chat suddenly fell silent. Dohee narrowed his eyes and typed again.

AssGo: Anyone up for Conquest War?

Thirty seconds passed before a reply trickled in.

PrettyHealerHyung: Hehe I gotta run an errand for my mom~!

Bastards. If you don’t want to come, just say so. Not like he had high hopes anyway. If they came, he’d either carry them or stomp the enemy, but those cowardly bastards wouldn’t touch PVP with a ten-foot pole. They weren’t even bad at it, just always flaked the second he brought it up. The rest of the guild was dead silent, as if they all had their fingers in splints.

Dohee closed the chat without hesitation. Fine, survive on your own, then. It was a guild made up of competent people who could handle themselves, but still.

Then he pulled the chat back up.

AssGo: No seriously, why the hell are you all so lazy when it comes to Arena and Conquest? You think this doesn’t matter? You don’t care about rankings?

AssGo: Is this a joke to you??

AssGo: I said I’d carry, so what the hell are you doing??

AssGo: Starting next month, anyone who drops below rank 10 is getting kicked.

SoftRiceCake: ???

YeohooHae: Uh… I’m the guildmaster here…

AssGo: So what.

PrettyHealerHyung: Vice leader, why are you suddenly raging…ㅠㅠ

AssGo: Weren’t you running that errand?

PrettyHealerHyung: [Crying emoji] I… I was just saying that…

Arena and Conquest War were two of the few prominent PVP contents in Sword of God. Arena was a 1v1 or 2v2 point-based battle mode, while Conquest involved 8, 16, or even 30 players per team in a capture-the-map format.

The kicker was that PVP scores factored into both the monthly individual and guild rankings. Especially in Arena, those scores heavily influenced personal rankings, which in turn boosted the guild’s standing. It didn’t even need to be said.

Dohee, now having accepted all his backlog of daily quests, minimized the chat again and tore an instant travel scroll.

“This game isn’t a joke. Do your damn part. If we keep at it, our guild ranking could climb next week, but you people can’t even keep up your contributions. What kind of guild members are you?”

His grumbling echoed through the quiet house.

Once the dailies were done, he’d have to move on to the weeklies. He’d been lazy for a few days, and now there wasn’t much time left before reset, but the backlog was mountainous.

Putting on his headset, the calm background music filled his ears as he moved his character outside the capital. Let’s start with the gathering quests.

The outskirts of the peaceful city Ladenska. The largest and most bustling city for newbies, Ladenska was the capital of Loul, one of the Seven Kingdoms. Hunting Ground 1 outside the city boasted the largest open field, making it the best spot to complete the daily quest ⌜Gather 30 Dawn Roses 0/30⌟ without fighting for spawns.

Dohee moved his character AssGo to begin collecting the roses. He was pretty satisfied with his new avatar set, Celestial Ramuriel. Every motion left a trail of soft, white powder that sparkled like stardust, it looked incredible. Expensive, yes, but worth every coin. Even his character’s fingertips released that same starlight as they picked flowers.

[General Chat]

ZoomZoomZoom: LOL this dude’s hilarious, can’t even catch a rabbit

suablingg: lmaooo can supports seriously not even catch rabbits?

ZoomZoomZoom: Nah, it’s just this guy who sucks lol

ZoomZoomZoom: lmfaoooo I caught the rabbit, didn’t I? Rage much?

suablingg: Why’s a level 132 bullying a level 17 lol

ZoomZoomZoom: Not bullying, just playing around lol

suablingg: lol is this a rabbit-hunting quest? Want help, Support-san?

ZoomZoomZoom: Just quit already, Support. Can’t even kill a rabbit lmao

The general chat, visible only to players in the same field, was blowing up. From the looks of it, a high-level player was messing with a newbie. What a clown. Now, where was the rabbit hunting ground again?

Opening the minimap to check, Dohee activated his Dark Assassin skill “Stealth” and moved toward the loudmouths undetected.

ZoomZoomZoom: No rabbits left~ I took ’em all~ lol cry harder, be a DPS next time

suablingg: Yikes… poor newbie

ZoomZoomZoom: That’s how it is for supports lol. Can’t even get one rabbit. Just quit.

Dohee half-jokingly, half-irritated as a support main, decided to find the jerk harassing the newbie, but then suddenly stopped dead as the next chat message appeared.

GOingSupport187: 8ㅅ8… I’ll get the rabbits… please go away… I’ll report you

ZoomZoomZoom: Report? Lmao what report?

ZoomZoomZoom: This is an open hunting zone, first hit gets the claim, duh? lol

suablingg: Just switch channels, dude… You can’t win against someone that high-level

ZoomZoomZoom: Sure, go ahead lol. I’ve got nothing better to do today, I’ll just keep following you and catching rabbits~

Dohee, main account GOingSupport, ranked #1 support on the server, #1 on the server leaderboard, #3 worldwide, blinked hard.

There was no way… Please let me be seeing things.

GOingSupport187: Why are you being mean… 8ㅅ8

GOingSupport187…?

What the hell kind of name is that?